In the state of the art, there are a number of solutions for checking the taking of medicines.
The patent application FR2650426, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, describes a system with drawers containing medicines. This system has liquid crystal screens for displaying prescriptions and an alarm for notifying the patient of the time to take medicines.
The patent application FR 2717681, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, describes a device with a casing provided with alarms, these alarms being set by virtue of the control keys.
The patent application EP1453466, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, describes a storage device that makes it possible to take medicines according to posology. This device comprises a weekly doser, an inclined plane, and semi-inclined daily dosers.
The patent application FR 2841360, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, describes a checking device in which a prescription is transmitted by mobile telephone, the transmission being secured by the use of the telephone number and of the code of the vital card. There is also provided a validation of the compatibilities of the medicines by virtue of an exchange of data between the mobile telephone and a central file which contains the data relating to the incompatibilities and the images of the medicines.
The patent application FR2920297, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, describes a system comprising cells sealed by a sheet comprising an electrical continuity rupture device for detecting that the cell has been opened.
The international application WO 2009/023858, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, relates to the management of a medication using mobile telephones. It comprises a management program capable of identifying and authenticating input/output images of the medication so as to confirm a correct medication performed by the patient.
The international application WO 2008/085607, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, describes a device for dispensing medicines comprising a remote control system. This device comprises: compartments for storing the medicines, an image capture appliance positioned to capture an image of the interior of each compartment, a communication module for transmitting the captured image to a central control station.
In these documents, there is no provision for a system for checking the taking of medicines by a patient which is incorporated in the appliance for dispensing these medicines. Also, in these documents, the check is performed remotely and it does not make it possible to perform a check in real time for a better reliability of the checking system.